How to be the change you wish to see in the world?
We have all heard the saying, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” Mahatma Gandhi is often credited with saying this.
What did Gandhi mean by “Be the Change” you want to see?
“You must be the change you want to see in the world” This iconic quote emphasizes the importance of personal responsibility and action. Gandhi Ji believed that if you want to see positive changes in the world, you must begin by embodying those changes yourself.
What does “Be the Change” you want to see mean?
From this quote, it seems that the statement Gandhi Ji was making is that if we wish to see change in our world, we must make it happen. That waiting for the world to change will not do. That social change and personal transformation are tied together.
We need to admit that this invaluable quote has impacted our lives in a special way. Be the Change has encouraged people to not complain about what others are doing and encourages people to fight for what they believe in. This is great advice. I have used this advice to encourage myself as well as others.
We need to decode what Gandhi ji really meant by that quote:
This quote helps us to pay attention to the inner self-work we need to do before we attempt to change the world. Inner work that examines, ” Ourselves openly, honestly, vulnerably and to purge out any resemblance of selfishness, depravity or insecurity.”
Gandhi Ji’s way of being is a lot of hard work. So, Gandhi Ji was trying to say that to make effective change in this world, we must first alter our personal nature. When we do that the world is a whole new place for us to make change with our new perspective.
If we wait for others to act on our behalf, we will be waiting a lifetime. But if we change our mindset to a mindset of hope and faith in what is just then nothing is stopping us.
Some tips from Gandhi Ji:
Change yourself
If you change yourself, you will change your world. If you change: How you think then you will change how you feel and what actions you take. So, the world around you will change. Not only because you are now viewing your environment through new lenses of thoughts and emotions but also because the change within can allow you to act in ways you would not have – or maybe even have thought about – while stuck in your old thought patterns.
The problem with changing your outer world without changing yourself is that you will still be you when you reach that change you have strived for. You will still have your flaws, anger, negativity, self-sabotaging tendencies etc. intact.
In this new situation, you will still not find what you hoped for since your mind is still seeping with that negative stuff. If you get more without having some insight into and distance from your ego it may grow more powerful. Since your ego loves to divide things, to find enemies and to create separation it may start to try to create even more problems and conflicts in your life and world.
You are in control.
“Nobody can hurt me without my permission.”
What you feel and how you react to something is always up to you. There may be a “normal” or a common way to react to different things. But that is mostly just all it is.
You can choose your own thoughts, reactions, and emotions to pretty much everything. You do not have to freak out, overreact of even react in a negative way. Perhaps not every time or instantly. Sometimes a knee-jerk reaction just goes off. Or an old thought habit kicks in.
You realize that no one outside of yourself can control how you feel you can start to incorporate this thinking into your daily life and develop it as a thought habit. A habit that you can grow stronger and stronger over time. Doing this makes life a whole lot easier and more pleasurable.
Forgive and let it go
“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”
Fighting evil with evil will not help anyone. It is human nature that you always choose how to react to something. When you can incorporate such a thought habit more and more into your life then you can react in a way that is more useful to you and others.
You realize that forgiving and letting go of the past will do you and the people in your world a great service. And spending your time in some negative memory will not help you after you have learned the lessons you can learn from that experience. You will probably just cause yourself more suffering and paralyze yourself from acting in this present moment.
If you do not forgive then you let the past and another person to control how you feel. By forgiving you release yourself from those bonds. And then you can focus totally on, for instance, the next point.
Incorporating these practical tips will help you in embracing and spreading happiness around you.
Be HappyHo!
Part 2 follows—-
